W J T Mitchell

Biographic Data

ID	233252
NAME	W J T Mitchell
GIVEN NAMES	W J T
FAMILY NAME	Mitchell
SIGNATURE	MITCHELL W J T
AFFILIATIONS	University of Chicago
VERIFIED	No
TOTAL WORKS	83
TOTAL CITATIONS	524
AUTHOR COUNT	86
EDITOR COUNT	0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR	1969
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR	2025
H-INDEX	10

“Every war is a war of words and images”
Open AccessPablo Manolo Rodríguez, Pamela Martínez Rod et al.ARTICLEFrontiers of Narrative Studies2025
W.J.T. Mitchell is Gaylord Donnelley Distinguished Service Professor of English and Art History at the University of Chicago and editor of the journal Critical Inquiry . He is an iconology and cultural studies expert, and his works include Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology (1986), Cloning Terror (2011) and the collection of influent essays What Do Pictures Want? (2005), awarded the 2006 James Russell Lowell Prize from the Modern Language Associati…
Old Trees, Wild Rivers
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2023References: 1
The Surplus Value of Images
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLEMosaic2022
This essay analyzes the ways in which images are over- and under-estimated, from idols that signify the highest values and demand human sacrifice, to empty signs that are worthless, hollow illusions. It then shows how these disparate estimations of "the surplus value of images" lead to the perception of images as living agencies that play crucial roles in social conflicts
Reframing Landscape
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLEARTMargins2021
“Reframing Landscape” explores three distinct landscapes that have been decisively impacted by conquest and colonization, reframed by three artistic interventions: painting, photography, and sculpture. August Earle shows us the de-forested landscape of 19th century New Zealand, still guarded by a Maori totem; Miki Kratsman photographs a wall mural in occupied Palestine that erases the presence of indigeneous people; and Antony Gormley anticipates…
Present Tense 2020
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2021Cited by: 4References: 4
When is it a good time to think about time? The answer provided by this essay is that there is no time like the present, especially the crazy, tense present of the year 2020. In this year four distinct scales of temporality have collided in a prolonged period of crisis and uncertainty: (1) the onset of a global pandemic that devastated the world economy and killed over a million people, the worst public health disaster since the Spanish flu of 19…
Mental Traveler
W J T MitchellBOOKMental Traveler2020
Groundhog Day and the Epoché
W J T MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2020Cited by: 3References: 18
Previous articleNext article FreeGroundhog Day and the EpochéW. J. T. MitchellW. J. T. Mitchell Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMore11 May 2020I thought that, by seventy-eight, I had seen everything. Every epidemic from polio to AIDS to SARS. Every war from Korea to Vietnam to Iraq and Afghani…
Mental Traveler
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellBOOKMental Traveler2020
Beholding Violence in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
Terry-Fritsch Allie, Felicia Labbie Erin et al.BOOKBeholding Violence in Medieval…2017
Grégoire Chamayou. A Theory of the Drone . Trans. Janet Lloyd. New York
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2017
Beholding Violence in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
Terry-Fritsch Allie, Felicia Labbie Erin et al.BOOKBeholding Violence in Medieval…2017
Bashir Makhoul and Gordon Hon. The Origins of Palestinian Art . Liverpool
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2016
Image Science
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellBOOKImage Science2015
Comics as Media
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2014Cited by: 6
Seeing Through Race
W J T MitchellBOOKSeeing Through Race2012
Seeing Through Race
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellBOOKSeeing Through Race2012
Preface to “Occupy
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2012Cited by: 5References: 2
Image, Space, Revolution
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2012Cited by: 44References: 5
Report from Morocco
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2012
Poetic Justice
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2012References: 1
Playing the Race Card with Lacan
Open AccessW J T Mitchell, Willie MitchellARTICLEJournal of Visual Culture2011
Migration, Law, and the Image
Open AccessW J T Mitchell, William J MitchellCHAPTERImages of Illegalized Immigration2010
Cloning Terror
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellBOOKCloning Terror2010
Critical Terms for Media Studies
W J T Mitchell, Mark B N HansenBOOKCritical Terms for Media Studies2010
Communications, philosophy, film and video, digital culture: media studies straddles an astounding array of fields and disciplines and produces a vocabulary that is in equal parts rigorous and intuitive. Critical Terms for Media Studies defines, and at times redefines, what this new and hybrid area aims to do, illuminating the key concepts behind its liveliest debates and most dynamic topics. Part of a larger conversation that engages culture, te…
Obama as Icon
Open AccessW J T MitchellARTICLEJournal of Visual Culture2009

Animal Rites
Cary Wolfe, W J T Mitchell et al.BOOKAnimal Rites2003Cited by: 167
Now that supposedly distinguishing marks of humanity, from reasoning to tool use, have been found in other species, how can we justify discriminating against nonhuman animals solely on basis of their species? And how must cultural studies and critical practices change to do justice to others who are not human? In Animal Rites, Cary Wolfe examines contemporary notions of humanism, ethics and animals by reconstructing a little known but crucial und…
What Do Pictures "Really" Want
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellBOOKOctober1996Cited by: 77
This essay, later incorporated as a chapter in What Do Pictures Want? (2005), explores the complex relationship between images and desire, arguing that pictures, like other objects of desire, solicit attention and evoke emotional responses. Mitchell challenges the traditional iconographic approach to image analysis, proposing instead a "biopicture" theory that treats images as living entities with their own agency and demands. He draws on a wide …
Image, Space, Revolution
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2012Cited by: 44References: 5
Spatial Form in Literature
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry1980Cited by: 42
Holy Landscape
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2000Cited by: 35
Pictorial versus Iconic Turn
Gottfried Boehm, W J T Mitchell et al.ARTICLERenaissance and Modern Studies2009Cited by: 20References: 1
In this exchange of letters, Gottfried Boehm and W. J. T. Mitchell explore the intellectual paths that brought them to simultaneously advocate an 'iconic turn' and a 'pictorial turn' respectively. They trace the emergence of the study of images through art history and philosophy and consider the diversity of images and the array of issues and ideas that come together under the topic of 'iconology' and 'pictoriality'. On the way they discuss the u…
What Is an Image
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLENew Literary History1984Cited by: 15
T HERE HAVE BEEN times when the question What is an image? was matter of some urgency. In eighthand ninth-century Byzantium, for instance, your answer would have immediately identified you as partisan in the struggle between emperor and patriarch, as radical iconoclast seeking to purify the Church of idolatry, or conservative iconophile seeking to preserve traditional liturgical practices. The conflict over the nature and use of icons, on the sur…
Romanticism and the Life of Things
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2001Cited by: 13
The Violence of Public Art
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry1990Cited by: 13
Picturing Terror
W J T MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2007Cited by: 12References: 2
Edward Said
W J T Mitchell, William J Mitchell et al.ARTICLECritical Inquiry2005Cited by: 9
Medium Theory
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2004Cited by: 9
Comics as Media
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2014Cited by: 6
Secular Divination
W J T MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2005Cited by: 6References: 1
The Politics of Genre
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLERepresentations1984Cited by: 6
Research Article| April 01 1984 The Politics of Genre: Space and Time in Lessing's Laocoon W. J. T. Mitchell W. J. T. Mitchell Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Representations (1984) 6: 98–115. https://doi.org/10.2307/2928540 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search …
Critical Inquiry' and the Ideology of Pluralism
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry1982Cited by: 6
Preface to “Occupy
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2012Cited by: 5References: 2
Ekphrasis and the Other
W J T MitchellARTICLESouth Atlantic Quarterly1992Cited by: 5
Research Article| July 01 1992 Ekphrasis and the Other W.J.T. Mitchell W.J.T. Mitchell Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google South Atlantic Quarterly (1992) 91 (3): 695–719. https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-91-3-695 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation W.J.T. Mitchell; Ekphrasis and the Other. South Atlantic Quarterly 1 July 1992; 91 (3): 695–719. doi: https://doi.o…
Present Tense 2020
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2021Cited by: 4References: 4
When is it a good time to think about time? The answer provided by this essay is that there is no time like the present, especially the crazy, tense present of the year 2020. In this year four distinct scales of temporality have collided in a prolonged period of crisis and uncertainty: (1) the onset of a global pandemic that devastated the world economy and killed over a million people, the worst public health disaster since the Spanish flu of 19…
Criticism and Crisis
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2002Cited by: 4
Ut Pictura Theoria
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry1989Cited by: 4
Diagrammatology
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry1981Cited by: 4
Groundhog Day and the Epoché
W J T MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry2020Cited by: 3References: 18
Previous articleNext article FreeGroundhog Day and the EpochéW. J. T. MitchellW. J. T. Mitchell Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMore11 May 2020I thought that, by seventy-eight, I had seen everything. Every epidemic from polio to AIDS to SARS. Every war from Korea to Vietnam to Iraq and Afghani…
Pluralism as Dogmatism
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry1986Cited by: 3
The Ends of Theory
W J T Mitchell, William J Mitchell et al.ARTICLECritical Inquiry2005Cited by: 2

Poetic and Pictorial Imagination in Blake's The Book of Urizen
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLEEighteenth-Century Studies1969
Emblem and Expression
W J T Mitchell, Ronald PaulsonARTICLEModern Language Notes1976
"Critical Inquiry" after Sheldon Sacks
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLEThe Bulletin of the Midwest…1979
Blake's Composite Art
Elaine Kreizman, W J T MitchellARTICLEModern Language Notes1979
Sheldon Sacks 1930-1979
Robert E Streeter, Wayne C Booth et al.ARTICLECritical Inquiry1979
Blake's Composite Art
Joseph Wittreich, W J T Mitchell et al.ARTICLEEighteenth-Century Studies1980
Spatial Form in Literature
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry1980Cited by: 42
Diagrammatology
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry1981Cited by: 4
Critical Inquiry' and the Ideology of Pluralism
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry1982Cited by: 6
The Language of Images
Carolyn Dussere, W J T Mitchell et al.ARTICLEThe German Quarterly1983
What Is an Image
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLENew Literary History1984Cited by: 15
T HERE HAVE BEEN times when the question What is an image? was matter of some urgency. In eighthand ninth-century Byzantium, for instance, your answer would have immediately identified you as partisan in the struggle between emperor and patriarch, as radical iconoclast seeking to purify the Church of idolatry, or conservative iconophile seeking to preserve traditional liturgical practices. The conflict over the nature and use of icons, on the sur…
The Politics of Genre
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLERepresentations1984Cited by: 6
Research Article| April 01 1984 The Politics of Genre: Space and Time in Lessing's Laocoon W. J. T. Mitchell W. J. T. Mitchell Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Representations (1984) 6: 98–115. https://doi.org/10.2307/2928540 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search …
Iconology
W J T Mitchell, William J Mitchell et al.BOOKIconology1986
dopuszcza się delikatnych prowokacji pod adresem historyków sztuki badających twórczość Stanisława Igna cego Witkiewicza; twierdzi, że pomijają
Floating Authorship
Peggy Kamuf, W J T MitchellARTICLEdiacritics1986
Introduction
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry1986
How Good Is Nelson Goodman
W J T Mitchell, William J Mitchell et al.ARTICLEPoetics Today1986
Pluralism as Dogmatism
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry1986Cited by: 3
The Political Theory of Painting From Reynolds to Hazlitt
W J T Mitchell, William J Mitchell et al.ARTICLEEighteenth-Century Studies1987
Iconology
W J T MitchellBOOKIconology1987
Wittgenstein's Imagery and What It Tells Us
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLENew Literary History1988
ITERARY CRITICS who like to go to the philosophers for help have good reason to be both attracted and repelled by the work of Wittgenstein. His writing would seem in many ways to be concerned with just the topics that are of most interest to us: language, meaning, thought, and their relations to forms of life, the ways we live. And yet Wittgenstein presents a real problem for literary critics, not just because he is difficult (certainly Kant, Heg…
The Ethics of Form in the Photographic Essay
W J T MitchellARTICLEAfterimage1989
Essay| January 01 1989 The Ethics of Form in the Photographic Essay W.J.T. Mitchell W.J.T. Mitchell W.J.T. Mitchell is professor of English and Art and Design at the University of Chicago, and editor of Critical Inquiry. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Afterimage (1989) 16 (6): 8–13. https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.1989.16.6.8 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data P…
Iconology
David Topper, W J T Mitchell et al.ARTICLELeonardo1989
Space, Ideology, and Literary Representation
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLEPoetics Today1989Cited by: 1
first thing to say about notion of space from a literary point of view is that it does not exist, or should not exist. Literature, as we have been told at least since Lessing's Laocoon, is a temporal art. Space enters into literature only as a dubious fiction, as a phantom in minds of overimaginative readers, as an invasion from alien and rival forms like painting, or as a necessary evil in transmission of verbal by spatial, visible traces of wri…
Ut Pictura Theoria
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLECritical Inquiry1989Cited by: 4
Influence, Autobiography, and Literary History
W J T Mitchell, William J MitchellARTICLEELH1990
Influence, autobiography, literary history: what logic, what practical necessity could bring these terms together in the same text, even the same sentence? At the most general level, one could imagine a kind of literary history constructed out of chains of influences revealed through the autobiographies of writers. Autobiography would have an extended sense in this form of literary history: all literary texts, it would argue, grow out of a strugg…